Grin & Bear It
by Dunce
Summary: Losing Poopsie bear affected Sig more than anything else, but just how did it happen? Set in Sig's childhood, rated T for violence. COMPLETE
1. The Vent

Characters: Young Sig, Maybe Young Jinx later on.

My first story, hope you like it.

Read and review please

I dont own anything to do with Jak & Daxter :sob:

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**Grin & Bear It**

**Chapter 1**

"Now remember Sigil, stay away from the sewers, it's dangerous down there." Sigil groaned, not only had he heard this lecture as many times as he had considered going down the sewers and more, but his mum had forgotten again to call him Sig like he had asked. She always seemed to forget, whether it was simple forgetfulness or the fact that she had chosen his name herself. He sighed and shifted his weight, rolling his bright green eyes as he did so. Seeing his boredom with his mum relented and let him go, running her hands through her brown hair, so much like Sig's own, and occasionally stopping him as he walked slowly to his room to remind him of another of her seemingly endless rules. As he emerged from his bedroom, clutching his beloved poopsie bear she sighed, thinking about how dangerous it was for him to be out by himself. He was after all the son of a duchess, who was herself a personal friend of Samad Mar, the current ruler of Haven city. But, seeing the look forming on her face, young Sigil was out of the house before she even began to turn to summon one of his many bodyguards, running into the bustle of the area that would come, in later years, to be known as dead town, his dark legs a blur.

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Sig eyed the dark, open vent. Wrinkling his nose at the vile scent wafting out of the open hole he began to consider going down there. He could tell by the smell that this grate led to the sewers, one of the many places that he had been constantly lectured about not going into, but there were other reasons to go down there other than just to disobey the oppressive set of rules he was force to adhere to when ever he was with a bodyguard or, indeed, his mother. The most important reason to go down was poopsie bear. It had been an accident, he realized as he regarded the stinking blackness in front of him he had been running when he fell and poopsie bear had just seemed to fly out of his hands down the grate, disappearing with a clunk and a quiet splash. It was a choice and he saw only two decisions. Firstly, he could go and rescue his teddy quickly. After all what could happen during the short time he was down there? Or of course he could listen to the repetitive and boring lectures and slink home, leaving his favorite toy lost forever in the darkness. He stepped forwards, realizing that there hadn't ever been a choice.

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Wheeeee First chapter 

Ill say it again, Please, review, I'm begging you!

Tea & Biscuitsfor all who can work out whyI called the king Samad Mar


	2. Mud, Muck and Monsters

**Note: This is justV2 of the 2nd chapter.**

First off, a **BIG** thanks to all the reviewers 

Again please review this after you have read it

I don't own Jak & Daxter or Sig etc.

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**The Story So Far:**

Sigil,more commonly known as Sig has gone down the sewers to find his lost teddy bear, which he dropped down there one morning. He has been in the sewers for about an hour and is no closer to finding his bear. Will he find it and return home safe, or are the sewers more than they appear?...

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Sig splashed through the sewers, pausing every now and then to glance around, looking to see if there was and sign of his bear inside the sphere of light generated byhis torch, which was basically a piece of wood which he had set fire to, his bear had been pulled away by the stream of what he had, for want of a better word, decided to call water. He didn't particularly want to know what was in the foul smelling and lumpy substance that washed around his feet. He felt something brush against his leg and shuddered, fighting the urge to look down, remembering the last time that he had done that. What he had seen was too horrible to think about, even if, for some inconceivable reason, you wanted to. He glanced left and right again, hoping to be rewarded with a glimpse of his teddy. Instead all he ended up getting was a face full of what he hoped was mud as he missed a bump in the ground and fell forward. As he stood up he realized that he wasn't enjoying this as much as he had thought he would. He almost wished he had stayed at home. He was beginning to see the reasons that he wasn't allowed down here and almost began to head back when he remembered his bear and, wiping the worst of the mud off his clothes and face, walked off into the gloom, his makeshift torch held high.

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Sig froze. He had heard something. In what seemed like years of being in the damp smelly sewers, he had heard many noises, the dull splut of 'waste' as it tumbled from the tubes, the soft plinking of the little water that got down here dripping from the ceiling to the ground, once he had even heard the quiet whispers of a crew of smugglers as they hauled thier good through the deserted sewer. But this noise was different. It was a soft clinking, repetitive and varying but oddly like footsteps. But what could have feet that metallic that was inside the shield wall? Metal heads couldn't get in could they? He closed his eyes as he concentrated on the sound and so didn't notice as his light went out. He opened his eyes again when the sound stopped, then screamed, turned, and ran away from the soft glow of a skull gem and the creature it was attached to. The metal head hissed at him, adjusted its legs and began to run after the fleeing elf.

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Sig ran and ran. His muscles began to burn and his breathing became ragged but still he ran. However fast he ran however, he knew he would never break free, he was only his ownguess that this was the way back out and it was impossible for him to outrun a creature of that size. Until, suddenly and unexpectedly, he felt it begin to fall behind and he allowed himself to hope, for a moment,that he could outrun it. That hope was squashed as it suddenly caught up, getting closer than ever. It was toying with him and ashe realizedthis hebegan to hate these cruel creatures that chittered at his misery. Suddenly his foot fell down an unexpected hole, causing him to fall, once again, face first into the mud. The metal head was on him in a moment, pinning him down. He felt its breath on the back of his neck. It shifted its weight and Sig took advantage of that moment, flying to his feet to the angry snarl of the monster as it was flung off, the exercise sessions his mother had had to force him to do had paid off. But it didn't last long. The metal head rebounded off the wall and knocked him, for what would seem to be the last time, to the ground. Looking into its eyes he realized it had done it again, not onlydeepening his miserybut also putting him in a position where he would have to watch it kill him. The monster raised its talon slowly, and then brought it down, fast. It had aimed to kill him slowly by impaling him in the stomach, but he was lucky. As the claw came down he heard the sound of a blaster firing and then felt an intense pain in his eye as the creature's talon swiped up as its body jerked from the eco now being fired into it. He screamed and then began to cry in relief. He was alive. But he sensed something was wrong. Even though he was sure his eye was open he couldn't see anything through it. Thatmeant he couldn't identify who his mysterious savior was, even when they spoke.

"Damn! That scream's gonna send a lot more of those metal heads our way. Get him into the barrow son and lets move out." Sig smiled, he could tell that whoever it was would probably look after him. He felt a slight lifting sensation, then saw only blackness as he passed out, his tiredness finally overtaking him.

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Will he get out? Who is this mysterious rescuer? Find out next chapter! All will be revealed!

Please review! What can I do better? Longer chapters? More detail? less detail? better character names?


	3. A New Eye

Thanks again to all the reviewers, Youpeople make it all worthwhile! To all those who've read this but haven't reviewed please do.

I most certainly do not own any thing to do with Jak & Daxter

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Sig woke up slowly, the dull pain in his eye and a strange wobbling sensation bringing him back to his senses. Looking down, he saw he was in a wheelbarrow. How had he got there? He pondered this for a second before remembering all of what had happened, his painful trek, the metal head, and then his mysterious savior. Realizing this must be who was wheeling along the barrow he looked around, only to see a boy, about his age, with blond hair. The thing that was strangest about him was his armor however. It was a mixture of many materials. Some parts titanium like the guard's, some parts of it was what appeared to be metal head armor, Sig didn't know if it had really belonged to a metal head as he had only ever see pictures of them, but it looked genuine. The strangest bit of the armor, however, had to be the leg guards. They seemed, amazingly, to be made of dried mud. Noticing his gaze the boy grinned. 

"Hi," he said, "I'm Jinx, me and my pa rescued you from that metal head." That explained how he was so young then thought Sig. But where was the father? It was then that Sig noticed that he wasn't the only thing in the barrow. On and around him, there where many pieces of precursor technology. These people had to be smugglers then! No one else could get this many artifacts. Looking around again he decided to let his suspicions show and asked the boy, Jinx, the question that was burning in the front of his mind. After all, if they were in that line of work then who knows what they would do to him?

"Are you smugglers?" He winced. He had tried to sound inquiring and casual but it had ended up as an accusation. As wellasthat, the fact that it had been almost a day since he had last seen anything that looked clean enough to drink meant that his throat, although well enough to speak, put him in severe pain every time he actually managed to. He heard laughter and looked around. However, due to his mysterious half blindness, which still seemed to be affecting him, and the fact that he couldn't, no matter how hard he tried, turn his head a complete 360 degreeshe was unable to ascertain the identity of the person who, it seemed, had found his question funny. He was unsure what that meant, were they smugglers who thought it funny that he didn't find that fact obvious? Or were they normal people who found it amusing that he even considered the fact that they could be smugglers? His question was answered a second later by the mysterious figure.

"We're not smugglers kid," Sig sighed in relief, seeing this, the person laughed again before continuing, "we're the only scavenger team who still look in the sewers for items, precursor or not." Sig looked down again and noticed that most of the mud stained items were indeed not precursor made. "Hold still for a second," instructed the mysterious voice and Sig did. A man came into his field of view. He dressed and looked a lot like his son, or was it the other way round? The man picked up a strange cylinder with an orange lens on one end. "This might hurt a bit." He said, beforepushing the cylinder into what Sig still thought was his eye. Sig screamed for a second then stopped, completely shocked. He could see again. He calmly felt the strange cylinder in his eye socket and realized that he had lost and eye. He had been denying t to himself before but now realized it was true. Looking around he saw that his new eye seemed to see slightly better than his old one. There was also a tactical overlay that vanished asit became connected to his brain and realized he had no need of this feature yet. In many ways it was a revolutionary new implant and only a few had ever been made. It was powered by the ecoenergyin a personsbrain and could see in the entire spectrum of light, from ultra violet to infrared. It would be very useful for Sig in later years. "Ok kid?" questioned the man. Sig nodded mutely. "Great!" he exclaimed, "lets go." And with that the barrow began to move off into the distance.

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"Why are you helping me?" asked Sig. They had been travelling for an hour. After they had got far enough away from the area where Sig had been attacked they hadstarted to talk to Sig. He hadn't said anything back to them until now. At first he had just been shocked that he could see again. Then he was to afraid to ask them his question incase they said something selfish likje that they were only doing it for the reward (would his return be offering a reward yet? He didn't know.) however, now that he had asked he was desperate to hear the answer. That's why, when he heard another strange sound he neglected to mention it. That was a big mistake. 

"Well kid-" Began Jinx's father but as cut off by a shriek and a hiss. Jinx and his father spun around, knocking over the barrow Sig was in, causing him to fall into the swiftly flowing stream and be swept away.Sig heard gunfire and managed to spin around for a second. Jinx was beside him. He had jumped in to try and evade the carnage that was now taking place on the shore of the small river. His fatherhad probably forced him to do this,judging by the look on his face. It was easy to see why.Despite the fact that no light penetrated the sewers it was bright enough to easily seefrom the glow of thousands of metal head skull gems, attatched to the thousands of metal headslining the floor, walls and ceiling. Jinx's father was holding them off as he shouted madly for Sig and Jinx to getaway. Theycould both swim and they would have been fine except for the fact that Sig'snew eye, not fully intergrated into his nerves and therefore still quite fragile shorted out. This caused Sig to be momentarily disorientated by his half vision and hestopped swimmingfor a second and began to sink. When he realised what had happened he panicked, thrashing about in the water. Jinx cam over to him to see what was wrong and Sig grabbed him, causing them both tosubmerge. Sig, still panicking, wouldn't let go of Jinx and so they stayed underwater. Both of thier lungs were gasping for air when Sig finally came back to his senses. They looked up and realised that they were very deep into the water. The light had gone now and they couldn't see which way the surface was, for all they knew they could have been overturned by the struggle. If they chose the wrong direction they would die. If they took too long to decide they would die. If they chose the right direction they might still die but they had more of a chance at life. Knowing all this Sig and Jinx looked up once again, trying to see some sign of what was the right direction. Seeing none they shrugged and began to desperately swim upward and, they hoped, towards the surface.

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Another cliffhanger insert evil laugh here 

Thanks again to all the reviewers. I hope even more people tell me what they think of this chapter. If you hate it though you have to say WHY!

Finally, can anyone think of a good name for Jinx's dad? I couldn't think of one that I liked at all and I cant just call him Xnij because I have no idea how to pronounce that.


	4. Darkness

Thanks for all your reviews, I still need a name for Jinx's dad so anyone with any ideas please tell me them.

I **DONT **own anything to do with Jak & Daxter

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**Previously: Sig was knocked from the barrow of his rescuers into the water of the sewers, he paniced because the mechanical eye they had given him shorted out and he dragged both him & Jinx, who had ended up with him, deep underwater. They surfaced and this is what happened next:

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Squelch, squelch, squelch. They had trudging around the sewers for at least an hour since they had getting out of the water and Sig was beginning to think they would never find Jinx's father. At first they had just been too shocked to think. They were alive! They had looked for something to do but couldn't think of anything. Sig had suggested getting out the sewers but Jinx had pointed out that they didn't know the way. Only his father had the map of the sewers and they didn't know where he was. That had led to the idea that finding the Jinx's dad would be a good thing to do. Sig had protested, saying that the old elf was probably dead, but Jinx had just walked off into the darkness, after a few moments of being alone Sig had gotten slightly scared and followed him. They had been plodding on through the muck ever since and Sig was beginning to get bored. Suddenly Jinx stopped and swore, causing Sig to flinch. At home he had been punished for swearing and was reluctant to even say 'ass'. It wasn't his mother's fault really. He knew that given the chance she would try to teach him herself, but that was very hard most of the time. She had parties and dinners to attend. It was all part of being a Duchess. One thing she had done was to leave a set of guidelines for him, which his many minders had enforced a little too harshly. He looked ahead to see what had caused Jinx to curse but couldn't see anything wrong. Puzzled he asked Jinx what had caused him to swear. Jinx replied:

"Can't you see? There's no light in there, we'll have to go back." Sig looked at Jinx, wondering if the cold had finally got to the young scavenger. It was easy to see up ahead. He puzzled over his for a second until it hit him: it was his eye! It was adjusting to the light meaning that he wasn't as blind in darkness as the other elf. When he told Jinx this he expected only laughter but Jinx's reply wasn't scornful at all:

"Really? I wonder why Pa gave you that thing then, it would be worth loads if it does what you say it does. Maybe he was just sorry for you. Anyway, if you can see you should go up ahead and guide me." Sig agreed and, after a short period of cramped shuffling the pair of them continued, Sig in front.

It seemed like ages ago they entered the blackness. It had been OK, just the occasional bump on the head for Jinx when Sig forgot to warn him about a low hanging pipe. But now it was getting dark outside and so the little light they had was slowly fading away. Ever Sig's enhanced vision was having trouble seeing all the corners. Suddenly he heard something that took him back to a time that seemed so long ago. It was a clang and a hiss, similar enough to the metal head's dying hiss to cause the hair on the back of Sig's neck to stand up. He gestured for Jinx to stop, wondering if there were metal heads fighting each other. Then he heard it, heavy breathing and the click of a blasters mechanism being armed. He waited, ready to dive to the side and avoid the bullet when it came at him, knowing it was probably just a smuggler, but when the gun did fire he was almost too shocked to move and only Jinx's intervention saved him.

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Who shot at him? can you guess? Remember also that I need a name for Jinx's dad. 

Please review!

P.S. What does OOC actually mean?


	5. Goodbye

Thanks to all reviewers!

This is hopefully going to be as good as the other chapters, I don't know why but I just feel it will be worse.

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"Son! Kid!" Sig heard through his mud clogged ears. The last time he had been clean seemed so long ago, although in truth it was probably only a day or so since he had last washed. Silently he made a vow that if he came out of this alive he would never again complain about having to have a bath. He remembered what had caused him to fall in the mud in the first place and looked up, wiping his face as he did so. He saw Jinx hugging Xin, his father. He realized from the older scavenger's face that Xin was not used to such displays of affection from his son. But he coughed a bit and returned the hug awkwardly.

"How'd you survive dad?" asked Jinx, taking in his father's appearance for the first time. Hs armor was cracked and covered in blood, and there were muddy streaks on his face.

"Don't worry son, most of it isn't mine, I ran into a bunch of smugglers back there." Sig could see, and was sure Jinx could see that his father was lying, and he must have been badly wounded to have that much blood on him. But much to Sig's surprise Jinx believed his dad, or tried to at least. "We'd better go," continued Xin, "some of those scavengers are probably coming to find me."

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As they were walking back down the dark murky tunnels, following the route to the surface Sig saw Jinx giving his father worried looks, Jinx had been given the map and had been given a plausible excuse why he should carry it but even he could now see his father looked incredibly ill. His breathing was becoming ragged and shallower than before and he seemed to be having trouble drawing air into his lungs. Sig began to ask him what was wrong when he saw something coming down the narrow tunnel. It was a metal head. It was similar in shape to a centipede but so big that it took up most of the tunnel's space and that its back brushed against the ceiling of the sewer pipes. Sig froze, anything he was going to say vanishing as all thoughts left his head. He could tell from the fact that the others were continuing their conversation that he was the only one with vision powerful enough to see the advancing monster. In an instant his thoughts unfroze and he realized Jinx's father was asking him a question:

"Did you hear something?" He asked

"Run!" shouted Sig in reply as the metal centipede drew even closer. Looking around Sig realized that Jinx and Xin must have seen it too as they had frozen, "RUN!" he shouted again and they snapped out of it, then they turned and all three of them began to run through the sewers.

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Xin was lagging behind. His mild trouble with breathing at a walk had turned into him gasping down air at a run. Sig could see that he wasn't going to be able to keep ahead of the centipede much longer. Suddenly he stopped causing Jinx and Sig to stop as well. He couldn't keep up.

"Here," he said pressing an item into Sig's hand. "Look after it, keep it hidden. Hopefully you wont know what it is until you're older. Jinx look after your family and get Sigil out of here." He paused, struggling to breath, "I have to stay here, hopefully I can hold it off. You have to escape, now GO!" He shouted pushing Sig and Jinx away from him. They both began to run, Jinx was struggling not to cry. Glancing behind him Sig saw Xin, propped up against the cave wall, with his blaster trained on the orb of light that was the metal head's skull gem. He fired, but this had no effect but to send an angry roar vibrating down the tunnel. Then he looked around, put his head down and ran for his life.

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R&R please! 


	6. Home At Last

**Last Chapter!** I hope you like it.

Legal Stuff: I dont own anything to do with Jak & Daxter

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Suddenly, there was only the sky above him, the stars shining down on him. He collapsed, panting. He had been running. Looking back on the last few hours of his adventure he realised he had been doing a lot of running.

First he had run from the metal head that had killed Jinx's dad, until, sure that he would be eaten he had been forced to stop. As he looked round however, all he had seen was sewer. He had called to Jinx, who had stopped, and they had both then looked at the map, trying to make out what it said through several thousand stains and burn marks. When they had worked out the route he and Jinx had split up.

Then he had had a long trek through the disgusting mud, until he met up with a small group of metal heads, and, as he was unarmed, Sig had ended up running from them as well. Eventually he had lost them and possibly the trail so the next several minutes were spent hoping he was on the right track. Then he had gone past a familiar piece of … something and realized indeed he was on the right track. After that he had spent a few more minutes searching for the item Jinx's dad had given him. He had looked up and seen some more metal heads (or were they the same ones?) behind him.

After he had stopped running again. Another long hour of traipsing through the mud, pausing every few seconds to listen for metal heads, and, if he heard any the next few minutes were spent either hiding or, running. On the one occasion the creatures had spotted him first he had ended up in a narrow shaft, with several nasty looking bites, hoping that they went past without bothering to look in all the pipes.

Of course in the end he had had to run some more. He had looked behind him as he heard a loud rumbling sound approaching and, once again, ran from the huge Monster that had killed Xin.

Until, finally, he had ended up here. Dead on his feet under the stars. He looked round with bleary eyes and saw that he was only a few streets away from his house. He had barely made it in before, deaf to the worried questions of his mother, he had collapsed, onto his warm soft bed.

**THE END

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R&R! Thanks to all reviewers! 


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